Spiritual Calculus

I'm talking to Deepa as I'm filing my post for today. She's busy updating her blog as I do mine.

Now Deepa or Deeps as she is popularly known and I have been friends for sometime now. She's a junior of mine from B-School with whom I've had some amazing conversations that have ranged from the most abstruse to the esoteric. And considering most of the conversations at B-School centre around surviving impossible deadlines and the idiosynchracies of far more impossible prof's who staunchly believe that living a 72 hour life in a 24 hour day is a as natural as is the sun rising in the east every morning - effortlessly, our tet-a-tetes provided us with the much needed succor from this routine.

And we've had loads of fun whilst at it not to mention potfuls of coffee and endless visits to Barista, a local coffee pub and by far our favourite hangout joint!

So, what were our conversations like? Well, we've discussed them all - from books, music and human psychology to books and music and human psychology! And considering we are both ardent readers who enjoy almost the similar if not same genres of writing and music it's cerebral nirvana for us both everytime our neurons interlock.

Psychology has always been an integral part of our discussions, almost like the main course, bereft of which no true meal is fully ever complete. In fact at times we'd end up so hungry for this meal that we'd help ourselves to endless servings, unmindful of the fact that it came in served as an entree, run into the main course and end up in dessert. Talk of psycho babble gluttony, I think we've more than shamelessly indulged!

The result being that we'd dissect issues than spanned the human psyche threadbare. Complexes, personality disorders, self esteem, insecurities, graphology, platonic relationships (our's is one such), assertiveness and emotional intelligence - all and I mean ALL were carefully analysed and put into perspective in the course of the experiences we had encountered.

I've never really believed in the concept of a soulmate, but if I did, perhaps this'd be the closest shave I'd have with it! And then again, it's not that we've not had our share of disagreements, God knows we've had many time over and again, 'time' (or the lack of it) being the key word here central to most of our disagreements. I absolve myself once and for all, by repeating as I've mentioned before - time management was never my forte and I know no less than a dozen who'd vociferously vouch for that. So there, Deeps..

The contours of the landscape that is life sometimes wind across mirage like expanses wherein you come across folks who manage to hold your attention with their sense of purposefulness in life and even more importantly their belief in that sense of their purpose. Deeps is one such (the other being Kiran). Gosh, it's amazing to see them manouvere their way through life, negotiating its bends with a stamina and enthusiasm, the source of which constantly seems to bewilder me!

...for what else would you say of someone who's emerged from the roughest patch of her life, thanks to a relationship gone horribly wrong, unscathed by the razorly slashes of emotional trauma etched deep onto her soul...a keen sense of purpose in life and pride of living life on your own terms is what I'd trace it down to. And it's not that she had no option, it's just that she'd have it no other way. Now that's what resilience of spirit is all about. It's not about playing to win all the time, more often than not it's about learning how to play it right! And so what if in these attempts you flounder and fall and so what if people accusingly call you names...and just so what?

Paving way through this peer clutter and yet maintaining a directional focus is emotional maturity. Experiencing all that life has to offer sans embitterment of the past is courage. Walking the tightropes of both is grace.

Having said that - and that seems like quite a lot, considering I started out not knowing what to post for today - here's to you Kiran and Deepa, from whom I've learnt being, what else, but graceful silly!

"Life is learning about the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed, no matter what it takes, and the wisdom to know the difference."